employ general ether or chloroform anesthesia in
Cesarean sections and other major obstetric operations, although
several operators are beginning to use "gas" in even these heavy
cases.

6. That the intelligent and careful use of pituitary extract in
certain cases of labor serves greatly to shorten the second stage;
that it is of great value in certain "slow cases," and serves greatly
to reduce the use of low forceps.

We have treated the subject of obstetric anesthesia in this full
manner, because of the fact that so much has appeared in the public
press on these subjects, and, further, because we desired that our
readers should have placed before them the facts on all sides of the
question just as fully as a work of this scope would permit.

CHAPTER XI

THE CONVALESCING MOTHER

Popularly spoken of as the "lying-in period," and medically known as
the puerperium, this time of convalescence immediately following
childbirth is usually occupied by two important things: the
restoration of the pelvic organs to their normal condition before
pregnancy, and the starting of that wonderfully adaptative mechanism
concerned with the production of the varying and daily changing food
supply of the offspring.

The uterus, now more than fifteen times its normal size and weight,
begins gradually to contract and assume its normal weight of about two
ounces; and it requires anywhere from four to eight weeks to
accomplish this involution. In view of all this it is obvious that
there can be no fixed time to "get up." It may be at the end of two
weeks, or it may not be until the close of four or five weeks, in the
case of the mother who cannot nurse her child; for the nursing of the
breast greatly facilitates the shrinking of the uterus. Extensive
lacerations may hinder the involution as well as other accidents of
childbirth, so it must be left with the physician to decide in each
individual case when the mother may enter into the activities of life
and assume the responsibilities of the care of the baby and the
management of her home.

THE NURSE

During this period of the puerperium a member of the family, a
neighbor, a visiting nurse, a practical nurse, or a trained nurse,
looks after the mother and gives to the babe its first care; whoever
it may be, certain laws of cleanliness must be carried out if
infection is to be guarded against. If there are daily or semi-daily
calls made by the physician, a member of the fam